The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum is on its way, it just may take a little longer than originally anticipated.

Brian Brake, executive director of the Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative, this week announced the board is looking at pushing back the projected opening date for the Wembley museum to allow for more fundraising.

The announcement comes in the wake of the highly successful Dan Aykroyd Family & Friends Dino Ball, which raised between $450,000 and $500,000 on July 23.

A bit of a surprise? Perhaps. But considering there has been little movement from the federal government in terms of financial assistance, perhaps not.

With a $27 million price tag, plans call for an even split of $9 million each from local fundraising, the province and the feds.

Local fundraising efforts have, so far, raised close to $4.5 million of the $9-million local portion. The project has so far received $3.6 million from the provincial government and just $540,000 from the feds.

In Edmonton, the Royal Alberta Museum is being rebuilt at a cost of $340 million. The provincial government has budgeted $180 million for the first three years of the project and the federal government has committed $30 million.

Granted, the Royal Alberta Museum has a much larger scope and is a significant project for the province, and the country for that matter.

While not arguing the cultural importance of the Edmonton project, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum also has an important place in preserving and exhibiting the paleontological history of this part of Canada.

We have a rich fossil resource that is a unique part of our country and needs to be maintained and treated with respect. On Wednesday, it was announced that 32 pachyrhinosaurus lakustai skulls and roughly 3,000 bones have been excavated from the Pipestone Creek bonebeds since the mid '80s.

As paleontologist Phil Bell says, we are only scratching the surface.

And now it's time for the feds to do more than just scratch the surface.

The community has been behind the project from the beginning and has stepped up to the plate in terms of funding. The province has stepped up and now it is time for the federal government to play its part.

We've said it before and we'll probably say it again: This project will not only be a cultural boon to the region but will likely have a significant economic spinoff.

It's a win-win situation.

Hopefully, the recent celebrity interest in the project will add a bit of glitter that may garner the attention of those on Parliament Hill and give them the impetus to dig a little deeper.